CynthiaMakara

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Encaustic

Encaustic technique is an ancient painting style that was first practiced in the first to third centuries. The earliest and best-known examples of encaustic art are the mummy portraits from Egypt having survived over 2000 years without cracking, flaking or fading. The main component in encaustic paint is beeswax. Beeswax is moisture, mildew and fungus resistant, and unappetizing to bees and other insects once it has hardened.

Contemporary encaustic paint is a combination of beeswax, damar resin and pigment. The paint is melted on a warm palette and applied to a warm surface. Each layer is fused to the layer before it using a heat gun or torch or tacking iron. Encaustic paint cools in minutes, which means additional layers can be added almost immediately. Once the surface has cooled, the paint reaches a permanent finish, but the painting can be revisited and reworked at any time, moments or years later.

Care and Display

An encaustic paint film is stable in a temperature range of
approximately 4 to 48°C. Wax is more fragile in the cold and becomes extremely
brittle in freezing temperatures. If you would drop the painting in cold
temperatures it will shatter. The paintings will begin to shift at 48°C.
The wax begins to be workable at 65°C, and it becomes liquid at 72°C. Very
hot days can soften the wax somewhat, but will cause no real damage.

If you must transport the painting in hot or cold weather simply
first cover the entire wax surface with wax paper, then cardboard, and some
form of insulation. When that painting is at room temperature remove the
wax paper and unwrap the painting. When in hot weather the wax paper will
stick to the painting but will cause no damage as long as it is removed at room
temperature.

Do not hang your painting in direct sunlight. You should
never put any fine art in direct sun, but with encaustic there could be more
immediate consequences. If you are nervous about the placement of the painting
just feel the surface. If it is warm the painting needs to be
moved. It should always feel cool to the touch.

I usually avoid glassing an encaustic piece. If encased in glass
and hung in direct sunlight, the glass will magnify the light and the space
between painting and glass can heat up dramatically causing the painting to
melt and shift. The paints have a damar resin in its formula; this cures and
hardens the wax over time making the paint less vulnerable to damage. It's like
varnishing the painting from within...so it doesn't need glass. However, you
can still take your fingernail and scratch the surface.

You will need to buff your painting when it seems dull or hazed
over. The painting should always be shiny. When the painting is
"young" or recently finished, it has not yet had time to cure and
harden. It will therefore go back to a matte looking surface after buffing the
first few times. As time goes by and the mixture has had a chance to cure and
harden, (could take up to 6 months) it will keep its buffed polished look. At
this point, it also sheds dust and dirt more readily. When the painting is at
room temperature or cooler take a soft 100% lint-free cotton cloth (they
are used for buffing cars) and buff the painting like you would buff a waxed
car. Do not buff painting if it is over 75 degrees. Do not buff hard enough to
create heat.